FUNDAMENTALS OF

SOIL SCIENCE

EN-305
(Lecture 1)
 IMPORTANT TERMS/FACTS
• PEDOGENESIS: Process of soil formation
• PEDOLOGY: Study of soil science
• EDAPHOLOGIST: Soil scientist
• DEFINITION: Soil is disintegrated or weathered
rock material mixed with organic matter, water,
and air
• Weathering is the break-up and
decomposition of rocks in-situ
• Rate of soil formation is approx. 1 inch topsoil in
500 years (3000 years to turn it fertile)
 SOIL FORMATION
• Physical Weathering
• Chemical Weathering
• Biological weathering
 PHYSICAL WEATHERING
• Freezing and Thawing (cryofracturing )
• Heating and Cooling (thermal stress )
• Wetting and Drying (cracking)
• Grinding or Rubbing (Abrasion)
• Unloading (Pressure release)
 CHEMICAL WEATHERING
• Solubilisation/Dissolution
• Hydrolysis / Hydration
• Carbonation - react with carbonic acid
• Oxidation - oxygen changes the chemical
structure
SINKHOLES
 BIOLOGICAL WEATHERING
• LICHENS

• MICROORGANISMS

• VEGETATION
PATHWAYS OF WEATHERIG
WEATHERING PROFILE OF
ROCKS
STAGE OF WEATHERING
 COMPONENTS OF SOIL
& ITS PROFILE

• ROCK MATERIAL
• ORGANIC MATTER
• AIR
• WATER
 PARTICLE-SIZE
CLASSIFICATION
GENERAL PROPERTIES OF
SOIL PARTICLES
GENERAL PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT
SOIL PARTICLES
SOIL TEXTURE
 SOURCES OF
CONTAMINATION
EN - 305
Lecture - II
 DEFINITIONS
• SOURCE: Sites at which contaminants are
released typically have a zone in which the
mass of contamination is originally
concentrated

• Source Material: Material that includes or

contains hazardous substances, pollutants or
contaminants that act as a reservoir for
migration of contamination to ground water,
to surface water, to air, or acts as a source
for direct exposure.
 • A source zone is a saturated or
unsaturated subsurface zone containing
hazardous substances, pollutants or
contaminants that acts as a reservoir that
sustains a contaminant plume in
groundwater, surface water, or air, or acts as
a source for direct exposure. This volume is
Non-Aqu
or has been in contact with separate phase
eous
Phase
Liquid
contaminant (NAPL or solid). Source zone
mass can include sorbed and aqueous-phase
contaminants as well as contamination that
exists as a solid or NAPL.
• Source zone, serves as the source for the
development of a dissolved phase plume. As
long as the source remains, a dissolved phase
plume will continue to develop; hence, removal
(or isolation) of the source zone is required to
halt creation of the dissolved phase plume.
• Recognition of a source zone may be
accomplished either from direct observation of
the separate phase contaminant (NAPL or solid)
or from inference. Because of equilibrium
partitioning theory, certain soil phase and
aqueous phase concentrations of contaminants
imply that a separate pure solid or liquid phase
exists in the subsurface, even if one cannot be
discovered.
HYDROGEOLOGIC SETTINGS
• Subsurface settings are a product of a set of
diverse geological processes that produce an
abundance of variations.

• Sedimentary systems: Aeolian sands, beach sands, alluvial fans,

river sequences, glacial outwash, deltaic sequences, and lake-
deposited (lacustrine) clays etc.

• Rock Sytems: Limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale, interbedded

sandstone and shale, extrusive volcanic flow sequences, intrusive
granitic bodies, and metamorphic systems of crystalline rock.

• To varying degrees these systems can be fractured, cemented,

and/or opened by dissolution (karst). This diversity makes it
challenging to develop general statements regarding the
characteristics of source zones
 Terminology for Hydrogeologic Settings
• Consolidated vs. Unconsolidated Media: Geologic
media that are cohesive as a body, firm, or secure are
described as consolidated (e.g., most rock formations).
Geologic media that are not cohesive as a body, are
loosely arranged, and that readily separate into granular
components, are described as unconsolidated. Most
alluvial deposits (e.g., beach sand) are unconsolidated.
 GRAIN SIZE
• Grain Size: From Press and Siever (1974), common
labels describing the sizes of granular media are:

• Clay < 1/256 mm < Very Fine Sand < 1/16 mm < Fine
Sand < 1/8 mm < Medium Sand < 1/2 mm < Coarse
Sand < 1 mm < Very Coarse Sand < 2 mm < Granule
< 4mm < Pebble < 8 mm < Cobble < 256 mm <
Boulder.

• Grain size and the degree of mixing of different grain

sizes (sorting) are primary factors that control the
permeability of granular porous media.
• Permeability: Permeability (k) is a property of a
porous medium that describes its capacity to
transmit fluid. Permeability is independent of the
fluid or fluids present in the porous medium and
has the units length squared (e.g., m2).
Permeability is used in this report as the primary
metric for the capacity to transmit fluid because
more than one fluid (e.g., air, water, and NAPL)
can coexist in the pore space of the medium.
Low permeability media are considered herein to
be < 10–14 m2. High permeability media are
considered to be > 10–10 m2. Between 10–14 and
10–10 m2 is referred to as moderate permeability
media.
 EFFECTIVE POROSITY
• Porosity is defined as the volume of void
space in the medium
divided by the total volume of the medium. In
hydrogeology the more important
term is the effective porosity of a porous
medium, f, which is a unitless parameter
defined as the volume of the interconnected
void space in the medium divided by
the total volume of the medium.
 HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
• Hydraulic conductivity (K) describes a porous
medium’s capacity to transmit water.
In contrast to permeability, conductivity is
dependent on the properties of the
porous medium and the fluid in the porous
medium and has the units of length
divided by time. Low hydraulic conductivity is
considered to be less than 10–7 m/sec,
high is considered to be greater than 10–3 m/sec,
and moderate would fall in between those two
values.
 HETEROGENEITY
• Heterogeneity is used to describe spatial
variations in permeability. Heterogeneity
can exist over a variety of scales and can
be reflected in abrupt changes in
permeability at discrete interfaces
(caused, for example, by low permeability
inclusions) or by continuous variations in
permeability over some
length scale (caused, for example, by
periodic gradations in grains size).
• Transmissivity: Transmissivity describes the bulk
capacity of a vertical interval of geologic media to
transmit water. Transmissivity is the product of the
average hydraulic conductivity of an interval and the
thickness of the unit. The units of transmissivity are
length squared divided by time.

• Layered: This term refers to horizontal beds of

material with different permeability and porosity that
are commonly encountered in natural geologic media.
Individual layers typically reflect changes in the mode
of deposition (e.g., flowing or stagnant conditions in
water). The thickness and lateral extent of layers
depends on the mode of deposition.
HYDROGEOLOGIC SETTINGS
• Within the subsurface regions,
nonaqueous, sorbed, and dissolved phase
contaminants in hydraulically stagnant
zones can provide persistent loading of
contaminants to groundwater passing
through them.
• The architecture of source zones is
considered for the five different types of
hydrogeologic settings.
 Five general hydrogeologic settings that are broadly
representative of the common conditions of concern are
 TYPE I – GRANULAR MEDIA WITH MILD
HETEROGENEITY AND
MODERATE TO HIGH PERMEABILITY
• Type I media include systems with porosities that are consistent with
typical granular media (e.g., 5 percent to 40 percent), with
permeabilities that are consistent with sand or gravel deposits (>10–
14 m 2 or hydraulic conductivity >10–7 m/s), and mild heterogeneity
 TYPE II – GRANULAR MEDIA WITH LOW
HETEROGENEITY AND LOW
PERMEABILITY
• Type II settings have porosities consistent with typical granular
media (e.g., 5 percent to 40 percent), low spatial heterogeneity, low
permeability with silt or clay deposits (k < 10–14 m2), and low
hydraulic conductivity (K < 10–7 m/s).
 TYPE III – GRANULAR MEDIA WITH
MODERATE TO HIGH HETEROGENEITY
• Type III encompasses systems with moderate to large variations in
permeability (greater than three orders of magnitude) and porosities
that are consistent with granular media (e.g., 5 percent to 40
percent). Given large spatial variations in permeability (at the scale
of centimeters to meters), portions of the zone are comparatively
transmissive while others contain mostly stagnant fluids.
 TYPE IV – FRACTURED MEDIA WITH
LOW MATRIX POROSITY
• Fractured media with low matrix porosity are common in crystalline rock including
granite, gneiss, and schist. The primary transmissive feature in Type IV settings is
secondary permeability caused by fractures, because little to no void space exists in
the unfractured matrix. The permeability of the unfractured matrix is considered to
be less than 10–17 m2 (K < 10–10 m/s). However, the bulk permeability of the
media is dependent on the frequency, aperture size, and degree of interconnection of
the fractures, such that the anticipated range of bulk permeability values is 10–15–
10–11 m2 (K = 10–8–10–4 m/s). The porosity of both the matrix and the fractures is
typically small—less than 1 percent.
 TYPE V – FRACTURED MEDIA WITH
HIGH MATRIX POROSITY
• This setting includes systems where fractures
(secondary permeability) are the primary transmissive
feature and there is large void space in the matrix. The
permeability of the unfractured matrix is considered to be
less than 10–17 m2(K < 10–10 m/s). The anticipated range
of bulk permeability values is 10–16–10–13 m2 (K = 10–9–
10–6 m/s).